Image Provisioning using VMware template

Support
1

Hello,

I am trying to provision servers using VMware template image, i like to
know procedure on how i can achieve it without SSH.

I am not sure currently how user-data thing works, i have enabled check-box
so, what i believe is, once image is open, it will configure DHCP on my
server and later it will copy user-data template and complete provisioning
steps ?

but somehow, after image is opened it does not configure my interface, I am
getting some "globalIPsetting" errors, i think my default template (which
comes with satellite6.2) is not good ?

can anyone help me with documented procedure on how it can be achieved ?
appreciate any steps to follow.

Thanks,
DJ

2

Can someone help me with this please?

Thanks,
DJ

3

Hi,
is a required key in a customization config. Adding something like:

globalIPSettings:
dnsSuffixList: [<%= @host.domain %>]

into your template might do the trick. There is also a thread [1]
discussing image provisioning on VMware which might be useful.

Hope this helps,
O.

[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/foreman-users/uRfEnTFcgdk

··· from my limited experience with VMware, I can tell that "globalIPSettings"
4

I got the following user data template to work for vmware image based
provisioning without SSH:

identity:
LinuxPrep:
domain: <%= @host.domain%>
hostName: <%= @host.shortname%>

globalIPSettings:
dnsServerList: [<%= @host.primary_interface.subnet.dns_primary %>, <%=
@host.primary_interface.subnet.dns_secondary %>]
dnsSuffixList: [<%= @host.domain %>]

nicSettingMap:
<% @host.interfaces.each do |interface| %>

  • adapter:
    ip: <%= interface.ip %>
    subnetMask: <%= interface.subnet.mask %>
    <% if interface.primary -%>gateway: [<%= interface.subnet.gateway
    %>]<% end %>
    <% end %>

However, the thing to know is that image based provisioning against vmware
without ssh is very limited when compared with traditional cloud-init. You
are basically limited to the following properties:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.wssdk.smssdk.doc%2Fvim.vm.customization.Specification.html

Which means you can pass basic network settings to bootstrap the box, but
little more. Windows clients can do a little more sysprep related activity,
but Linux is limited. This means you will almost certainly need to design
some form of "firstboot" process to handle things like re-registration to
foreman, initial puppet run, etc. So far the only thing I haven't figured
out is how to "phone_home" to complete the build. All I've been able to do
is cancel the build in the web UI once it is done.

5

Have a look at a post I wrote a while ago, still works for me now:
http://www.herbert.org.nz/?p=245

Cheers
Francois

··· On Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 9:40:54 PM UTC+13, opr...@redhat.com wrote: > > Hi, > from my limited experience with VMware, I can tell that "globalIPSettings" > is a required key in a customization config. Adding something like: > > globalIPSettings: > dnsSuffixList: [<%= @host.domain %>] > > into your template might do the trick. There is also a thread [1] > discussing image provisioning on VMware which might be useful. > > Hope this helps, > O. > > [1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/foreman-users/uRfEnTFcgdk >
6

Hello, i came across that, but that's windows, do i need same thing applied
to Linux ?

Thanks,
DJ

··· On Friday, 11 November 2016 02:04:29 UTC+5:30, Francois Herbert wrote: > > Have a look at a post I wrote a while ago, still works for me now: > http://www.herbert.org.nz/?p=245 > > Cheers > Francois > > On Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 9:40:54 PM UTC+13, opr...@redhat.com > wrote: >> >> Hi, >> from my limited experience with VMware, I can tell that >> "globalIPSettings" is a required key in a customization config. Adding >> something like: >> >> globalIPSettings: >> dnsSuffixList: [<%= @host.domain %>] >> >> into your template might do the trick. There is also a thread [1] >> discussing image provisioning on VMware which might be useful. >> >> Hope this helps, >> O. >> >> [1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/foreman-users/uRfEnTFcgdk >> >
7

Sorry, didn't realise you wanted to deploy a linux template. I only deploy
windows using a template, linux I deploy using pxe/kickstart.

··· On Friday, November 11, 2016 at 6:04:35 PM UTC+13, Unix SA wrote: > > Hello, i came across that, but that's windows, do i need same thing > applied to Linux ? > > Thanks, > DJ > > On Friday, 11 November 2016 02:04:29 UTC+5:30, Francois Herbert wrote: >> >> Have a look at a post I wrote a while ago, still works for me now: >> http://www.herbert.org.nz/?p=245 >> >> Cheers >> Francois >> >> On Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 9:40:54 PM UTC+13, opr...@redhat.com >> wrote: >>> >>> Hi, >>> from my limited experience with VMware, I can tell that >>> "globalIPSettings" is a required key in a customization config. Adding >>> something like: >>> >>> globalIPSettings: >>> dnsSuffixList: [<%= @host.domain %>] >>> >>> into your template might do the trick. There is also a thread [1] >>> discussing image provisioning on VMware which might be useful. >>> >>> Hope this helps, >>> O. >>> >>> [1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/foreman-users/uRfEnTFcgdk >>> >>